The Sixth Day

We know so very little.

WISHING TO RESTORE THE FALLEN WORLD FROM CORRUPTION,
THE LORD CAME TO DWELL IN YOUR WOMB, THEOTOKOS,
IN A WAY THAT HE ALONE UNDERSTANDS.
AND ALL OF US WHO HAVE FOUND SALVATION
CRY ALOUD TO YOU WITH THE GREETING OF THE ANGEL:
REJOICE, BLESSED AMONG ALL WOMEN,
FOR YOU HAVE BROUGHT FORTH JOY TO THE WHOLE INHABITED EARTH!

When I was a protestant, my sect remembered a few of our great leaders, but not really many and not fervently. We believed ourselves to be anti-traditional, so we didn’t spend much time looking back to them. We went straight to the Bible, believing that it was mediated to us directly from the early church (first century) and that things had badly fallen apart by 100 AD. Yet we read the English translation, especially favoring (as I still do) the beauties of the one ordained by a probably bisexual and certainly unstable King who served as head of the church and commissioned his scholars to create a text that would be the official Bible of his kingdom, thus bringing unity.

I will always love the King James Version, and I will always be grateful to those from my home and my church who taught me to love the written word of God and the living Word as well. But I am pleased to be able to remember with joy and reverence 2000 years of heroes of the faith from literally every continent and virtually every country on earth.

I digress because of this marvelous veneration of St. Theodore in today’s matins, one I would have never learned about in my sectarian days:

CROWNED AND VICTORIOUS SAINT OF GOD,
YOU NOW STAND WITH THE ANGELS BEFORE CHRIST’S JUDGMENT SEAT.
FILLED WITH THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN,
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING FOR PEACE IN THE WORLD
AND FOR OUR SALVATION, THEODORE,
AS WE CELEBRATE YOUR JOYFUL FEAST WITH TRUE DEVOTION,//
BLESSED AND GLORIFIED MARTYR!

I do not have the self-mastery or degree of illumination for that, but Oh how I do want it.

Imagine being remembered by Christ, in and by His church, for all the right reasons, for all eternity. This is the honor Christ wants to give us!

Before reading a veneration like that, it was hard to grasp what the Apostles meant when they said things like, “If you humble yourself, he will exalt you.”

Exalt indeed. Memory eternal indeed.